Plot Synopsis

It is always good to see locally made television drama hitting our screens and being released on DVD. This two disc set contains a series of three telemovies made in the last two or so years for the Ten Network. Between them they were nominated for 3 Logies and 3 AFI awards, which is pretty good going. They are lighter style mystery thrillers with a good dose of humour included. The basic premise is that two mothers who are feeling like their lives are not going the way they would like find themselves embroiled in mysteries that they help to solve. They are Chrissy Hindmarsh (Rebecca Gibney), a mother of three who was previously a lawyer but is now running a catering business from her home while looking after the kids and Jo Collins (Claudia Karvan) a single mother who has effectively been demoted in the police service due to her motherhood duties. Chrissy sees the best in everyone and is passionate about helping people whereas Jo is quite tough and hard to get on with.

The three movies are:

Small Claims (99:30 ) - Chrissie and Melinda get involved in a mystery surrounding one of the members of their mothers group which seems to involve a murder in Western Australia 8 years before.

White Wedding (94:40 ) - Jo's step sister, Kiara is getting married and they have never really gotten along. She is an insolvency agent and one of her subordinates gets stabbed to death. The body is found in Jo's brother's car, who has disappeared. It seems like coincidence initially, however details start to emerge.

The Reunion (99:59 ) - Chrissy attends the 15 year reunion of the law faculty she attended. She takes Jo along because her husband won't go with her. A woman falls into the pool after being drugged and someone else related to the case drowns.

All three of these are well made telemovies featuring interesting plots, quality acting, some funny one-liners and real believable characters. For those who find grittier television thrillers such as Prime Suspect or Silent Witness hard to take these are a good alternative, avoiding too much gore, swearing or sex whilst still having some thrills and a mystery to solve. It's also excellent to see two of our better local actresses getting the chance to anchor three mainstream television productions for a commercial network and doing such a great job of it.

Transfer Quality

Video

The video quality is good.

The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

The picture was reasonably sharp and clear although was affected by light grain throughout, which in some scenes became heavier and turned to mild macro-blocking in backgrounds. Shadow detail was very good.

Audio

Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

The score of this film by Daniel Denholm is moody and emotive, adding to the feel of the movies.

The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used noticeably.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue

Audio Sync

Clicks/Pops/Dropouts

Surround Channel Use

Subwoofer

Overall

Extras

Menu

The menu was still and silent.

Disc 2

Making Of

Three separate making of featurettes are included, one for each movie. They follow a very similar pattern including interviews with cast and crew about the characters, story and shooting, behind the scenes footage and excerpts from the shows. They are all competent without providing any great insights. They are

Small Claims (15:07)

White Wedding(15:12)

The Reunion (15:08)

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view
non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually
also NTSC compatible.

This set is not available in other regions.

Summary

A set of three good quality telemovies featuring an unorthodox crime solving pairing of a desk bound cop and a caterer.